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>> Joan Sted: Thanks
again we're back

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in Building 220 I'm Joan Sted at
Thomas Mission Operations test

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and this time we're talking with
Alvin Drew who is the commander

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for today's run of the test.

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[Background noise] Thanks
so much for coming back.

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I know we talked with you last
time we were had these tests

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going on back in May so.

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. .

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>> Alvin Drew: Yes.

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>> Joan Sted: . . .this
is a little different

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than I think last time ya'll
were using just basic what we

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already know to deal
with the time.

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. .

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>> Alvin Drew: Yes.

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>> Joan Sted: . . .delay.

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And this time you're
trying out some new tools

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and procedures, right?

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>> Alvin Drew: Absolutely.

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>> Joan Sted: Okay.

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How's it going?

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>> Alvin Drew: It's going well.

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It's like you talked
about before.

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The tools we were using last
time were the same 20th century

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tools we've been using
since the days of mercury.

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So they're 50 years old.

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It's like the walkie talkie
model of talking where,

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you know, you cue the mic and
you say something and let go

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of the mic and the
person's cue's the mic

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on the other end and
they talk to you.

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And they well if you are
doing something fairly simple

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and you're only a few hundred
miles away from the earth,

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but the distances we're
simulating right now it doesn't

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work as well.

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So with this today we've got all
our 21st century tools that some

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of the people recognize as
being just normal stuff we use

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like texting and other
things like that to see

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if that helps us out any.

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>> Joan Sted: You wouldn't think
NASA needed any help getting

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into the 21st century,
but I guess so.

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We have stuff that has worked
for a while, but it's time

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to move on to some new .

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. .

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>> Alvin Drew: We've got
new challenges in front

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of us and new things to do.

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So the tools that worked well
for the past 50 years why fool

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with them and they're
working fine.

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These are things that we
know that tools will not work

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when we are long distance away
from the [inaudible] speed

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of light, you know, that
may take you 20 minutes

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to get an answer back.

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And if that answer was can
you say all that again,

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well that gets to
be very frustrating.

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So it's nice to have
things that written records

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of what you wanted if you
could send a text message

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so they can just
re-read the message.

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>> Joan Sted: Well, how do
you think that's going so far?

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Do you like the choice?

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>> Alvin Drew: I think
it's going great.

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It's a little bit strange
because I'm used to lots

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of chatter over the radios
when things are going on

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and we've spent the whole
morning I think we talked

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to them three times.

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[Laughter] So we think
we're mad at each other

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or something and we're not.

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[Laughter] It's just
-- there's just a lot

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of typing and chattering away.

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So if you're a teenager

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with a phone it would seem
perfectly normal to you,

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but to somebody like me
who's just a few months away

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from AARP card it's
a little bit weird

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to not hear any chatter
over the radio lines.

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>> Joan Sted: So how many --

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are there runs in all
the [inaudible] today

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at three different time delays?

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>> Alvin Drew: Yes.

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>> Joan Sted: Five seconds .

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. .

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>> Alvin Drew: Five seconds .

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. .

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which is five minutes.

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>> Joan Sted: Right.

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So which ones have
you done so far?

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>> Alvin Drew: So far
we've done 50 seconds

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and we'll look five minutes

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and then we'll do another run
actually with 50 seconds again.

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We won't do the five
second delay.

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>> Joan Sted: What kind
of things have you had

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to do under those delays?

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What kind of tasks
and activities?

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>> Alvin Drew: Basically
I caught this old --

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things that are broken I
guess we're on our way home.

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So we've got computers that are
hard drives that are failing.

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We've got inspections and we've
got some dings on our spacecraft

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from micro-meteoroid strikes.

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We've got an exercise
device that's got worn

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out from I guess we've been
doing too much exercise.

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That's a good thing I take it.

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>> Joan Sted: Good job.

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>> Alvin Drew: So things
we're just tidying things up

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and getting ready for
the trip back home.

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>> Joan Sted: And is it hard
to do it without being able

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to talk instantly to the ground,

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or do you think you're
able to handle it?

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>> Alvin Drew: As long as things
run normally there's not a lot

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of reason to talk granted
it's just coordination.

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It's letting them know we're
starting this procedure

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on this times and they want
to know that and how things go

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when you get done with it.

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You know we found
this particular

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and we put this away over here.

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We testing this thing, we
got this piece of data back.

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And so none of it's really
urgent and there doesn't need

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to be a whole lot
of interaction.

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We send them information.

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They get it.

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They acknowledge if they have
any questions they bring it

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back up.

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So I haven't really
noticed any big to do's.

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I think when things get dynamic

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when you know maybe
something goes wrong,

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which stuff will happen here
in the next couple of runs.

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That's when the adrenaline
starts to pick up a bit

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because there's time
delays on both ends now.

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>> Joan Sted: Right.

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Okay. Well, so, you know,
going through this now,

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do you think this is
going to get us ready

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for when it is time
to go to [inaudible]?

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You know, we've got the Ryan

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and the space launch
system being built now.

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So that's help get us in that
direction, but are we going

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to be ready once we get there?

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>> Alvin Drew: I think so.

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We're making big
strides right now.

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And what I'm seeing a lot of
feedback from crew members is

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that these are tools we
can use right now working

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on the National Space Station,

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whereas the tools we
have right now work fine,

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these actually make our
life better up there.

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Having things like
text so we don't have

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to go could you please
say again,

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even though there's no
time delay they can go look

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at the message.

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So why not?

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That's not a big leap
with these technologies.

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There are things that work
on the same computers that we

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in the space station right now.

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So we're actually looking
at implementing some

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of these things here and now.

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Some of the displays we have

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over [inaudible]
look at our IPads.

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This is how we interact
with this particular model

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of a space craft that wouldn't
be a big deal to make that work

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on board our space station.

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So if you're looking at a
procedure, you want to look

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at a systems, you don't have
to float over to a workstation,

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look at it and then float
back over to your worksite.

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You can take everything with you
and use it right then and there.

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Well, now we've got IPads
or Tablets available

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on board the space station.

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We can put the software on
those particular Tablets

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and have that capability.

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So there are things that
can enhance our lives

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on the space station now
and of course get us ready

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for going further and
further either way right

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into out beyond the
moon and even further

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out in our planetary space
in the near coming years.

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>> Joan Sted: Getting
easier to imagine then?

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>> Alvin Drew: Yes, it is.

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>> Joan Sted: Yeah.

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>> Alvin Drew: Yes.

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>> Joan Sted: All right.

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Well, thank you so much
for talking with us again.

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We really appreciate.

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It sounds like you've got a lot

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of interesting stuff
going on here.